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jlb1185's Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC)
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| [April 19, 2013 12:53:08 AM]
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Batman Arkham Asylum: Monday, Aug. 9,2013
Batman Arkham Asylum is an action adventure game based on the hit comic book series. The player plays as the famous superhero Batman has he fights his way through the insanity that is Arkham Asylum.
=Controls =
For my play though of the game, I utilized wired X-box 360 remote connected to desktop computer. The game is on PC, X-Box 360, and PS3. With the PC version, there are keyboard and mouse input, but as a matter of personal preference, I used a controller. The controls as followed: Left Analog stick-Move, Right Analog Stick-Camera control, Directional Pad-Equipment Selection, A+Left Analog Stick-Run, X-Attack, B-Cape Stun, Y-Counter, Holding Right Back Trigger(R.B.T.)-Crouch, Y+R.B.T-Takedown, Pressing R.B.T-Quick Batclaw, Pressing Left Back Trigger(L.B.T)-Quick Batarang, Holding L.B.T-Prepare Equipment, Holding L.B.T+Pressing R.B.T-Use prepared equipment, Right Upper Back Button-Grappling Hook, Holding Left Upper Back Button-Detective Mode, Pressing Left Upper Back Button-Enviroment Analyzer
=Story=
The story begins as Batman has just captured Joker and is returning him to Arkham Asylum. Upon being released into the hands of the guards of Arkham, Joker manages to escape their grip, and with the help of his evil sidekick, Harley Quinn, begins taking over Arkham. As the story progressing, you learn that Joker has actually been working with one of the doctors of Arkham, Dr. Young, to develop a formula for a superhuman. It then become you job to stop Joker from building a superhuman army to take over Gotham. There are a few twist and turns in the story with some debut for some iconic Batman characters until the inevitable battle with the Joker himself.
= Game Play =
For my initial game play, I choose to do it on Hard mode, the highest difficulty, as a matter of preference, but I later went back to analysis the difference by playing it on the easy settings. As the overall game goes, there are the basic game elements that are used thought the game. These are the traveling element, the stealth element, and the combat element.
The traveling element was very easy because it was simply get from point A to point B. At these parts of the game, it’s really hard to fail due to the fact that in a place where you would fall off into the abyss, the game would give you the option to grapple back up and try again. Without the ability to fail at these stages, the mazes become a simple state of trial and error till the player gets it right.
The stealth element was a little more challenging. These parts of the game primarily consisted of the Scarecrow fear stages and the hostage situation stages, but there is also the stages in which the room is filled with criminals armed with guns and it is suggested that you eliminate them using the stealth approach. In the Scarecrow stage, the objective is to get through the stage without being seen by a giant Scarecrow or else it is game over. In the hostage stage, the player must make it to the villain holding the person hostage and take them out, without being seen by the villain or the criminals patrolling the stage, but if you are seen, the hostage is kill and it’s game over. As far as the stages with only armed criminals, on easier difficulties, it is sometimes possible to take out the criminals without using much stealth, but on hard, I found that this is not an option at all.
The combat element is actually the only place in which difficulty makes a difference. The only difference in difficulty is the amount of damage the player does and the amount of damage the enemies deal. Combat is composed of three different stages. These are the group criminal fights, the “Bain” boss fights, and the miscellaneous boss fights. In group criminal fights, the player is surrounded with basic criminals that attack the player. In these stages, the main objective is to take down all of the surrounding enemies. This can be done by using the takedown ability while an enemy is on the ground or damaging the enemies to a point where they are knocked out. The second option on hard is a little more difficult as well as time consuming to a point where it’s best to use the takedown technique. In this group fight, there are some special enemies that require the use of advanced fighting techniques like countering and stunning to be taken down. The next combat stage I’ll be discussing is the “Bain” style boss fights, and I have named this because throughout the game there are 5 or 6 boss fights in which the player has to use the same techniques that are used to take out Bain to take out these bosses. The basic technique is to as the “Bain” enemy is running at you, throw a Batarang at them stunning them and then attacking them until they recover. The game increases the difficulty of these fights as the game progresses by adding in criminals that fight alongside the “Bain” boss and even putting two “Bain” bosses in the same stage. Overall, these stages to me fill the game considering they are supposed to be set up as boss fights. Lastly, in the miscellaneous boss fight, the player gets to go up against one of few extra villains in the asylum. Each of these bosses has their own strategy in which the player has to use to take them down.
=Extra Content=
In the game, there is some extra content which helps keep the game going a little after the story is done. The first extra content is the Riddler Challenges which are actually done throughout the story mode but can’t be completed until the very end of the story. These challenges are interesting because they unlock bones content like Character Bios, Character Trophies, and give a little more back story into the game of Arkam Asylum and the villains that are there. Then there is Challenge Mode for the players who want to keep playing long after the story mode is over. In these challenges, a player has to complete some part of the story mode while either obtaining a high score or completing a series of tasks. There isn’t anything to unlock with completing these challenges but they can be fun to do.
= Overall =
Batman Arkam Asylum is a pretty good game overall. It has some issues with the combat system in the case that if feel like the player is doing just a lot of button mashing and the “Bain” boss fight to me personally just feel repetitive after a while. Also the player is more drawn to stay in detective mode though most of the gameplay. What makes this a good game is the story. The story is very solid as far as a Batman story goes, and the extra content involving villain profiles helped me learn more about the Batman universe. So, even though it falls short on some of the gameplay element, it’s still a good game do to the fact that it tailors to its audience, Batman fans. It gives them what they want, Batman being Batman.
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jlb1185's Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 9 April, 2013
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